GTX 660 vs HD 7870

ozzman1997

January 29, 2013 9:55:46 PM

I want an honest to goodness truth of which card is faster, with benchmarks to prove. I originally planned to get a GTX 660 or 660 ti but am now considering the HD 7870 from XFX. I am going to be doing recreational 3D modeling, gaming, and maybe video/photo editing. I do favor Nvidia, especially EVGA for being a great American-based company, but I'm having second thoughts here.

My specs:

i5-3570k @ 3.5 GHz
8GB DDR3 1600
Corsair 600-watt PSU
Asus P8Z77-V

And everything will be done on a 24" 1080p LCD flat screen monitor. Any help is appreciated.

More about : gtx 660 7870

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lt_dan_zsu

Graphics card Authority

January 29, 2013 10:11:19 PM

Well definitely don't get a 660ti. The problem is, drivers release so fast that it is hard to show which is stronger. The 7870 is generally more on par with a 660ti though.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-car...
this shows the 660 as generally being lower performance than a 7870. I could probably dig up some comparisons that are actual benchmarks, but they are hard to find.

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ozzman1997

January 29, 2013 10:30:46 PM

What about this 570? http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=012-P3-157...

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completelyrandomname

Graphics card Expert

January 29, 2013 10:34:58 PM

AMD recently released a new version of the 7870, the 7870 LE (Tahiti LE). This new card performs ALMOST as good as the 7950 which is a $300 card AND you can get it for around the same price of a GTX 660. Definitely go with the 7870 LE version.
Here it is, but it's obviously out of stock. Just keep waiting or look around.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

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completelyrandomname

Graphics card Expert

January 29, 2013 10:36:33 PM

As for the GTX 570. The 7870 (normal version) beats it in all the tests so it's a no brainer to get the 7870.

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lt_dan_zsu

Graphics card Authority

January 29, 2013 10:51:41 PM

Why would you ever get a 570? All cards we have suggested are as strong or stronger for less money. I would say 7870 le or normal is the best bet.

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munjoo238

January 29, 2013 11:02:07 PM

The 7870 is definitely faster than the GTX 660 when it comes to gaming performance

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/548?vs=660

but if you do more than gaming, Nvidia has an edge over AMD

You may check the thread here http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/349953-33-nvidia-grap...

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munjoo238

January 29, 2013 11:07:35 PM

AutoCAD, 3ds max, Maya, CS 6, DAZ Studios, Premiere, and Adobe After Effects
Does support CUDA from Nvidia which will help you a lot.

On the other hand AMD appears to not have any approach when it comes to these softwares. I think they focus more on Gaming

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completelyrandomname

Graphics card Expert

January 29, 2013 11:08:26 PM

Yes, Nvidia has CUDA cores which will be excellent for editing/rendering stuff.

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kroeger

April 11, 2013 3:46:02 PM

ozzman1997 said:

I want an honest to goodness truth of which card is faster, with benchmarks to prove. I originally planned to get a GTX 660 or 660 ti but am now considering the HD 7870 from XFX. I am going to be doing recreational 3D modeling, gaming, and maybe video/photo editing. I do favor Nvidia, especially EVGA for being a great American-based company, but I'm having second thoughts here.

My specs:

i5-3570k @ 3.5 GHz
8GB DDR3 1600
Corsair 600-watt PSU
Asus P8Z77-V

And everything will be done on a 24" 1080p LCD flat screen monitor. Any help is appreciated.

I am looking for a card for a similar sort of application.But I want to use it at 2560x1440 reolution.

In the same predicament.Cannot decide between the GTX 660ti and the HD7870.

What did you go with?

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